Here’s my annual roundup of the most impactful digital developments we’ve seen in the arts over 2011. Its been a fascinating year: some of these digital developments increase reach, scale, impact, and access to work creating massive opportunity; some create new economic models for better sustainability; some challenge our traditional notions of participation with an artistic experience or piece of work. Conventions and practices which are socially embedded rituals are being impacted, our perceptions of proximity and intimacy are being altered, and our organisations are in need of capacity, capability, and confidence in order to be able to reflect, respond and create.

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Innovation funding needs to meet the specific needs of cultural organisations and that isn’t always about creating something radical and new. This article for Arts Professional stems from my thinking over the summer, crystallised here and in a talk I presented at Creative Entreprenuership, a European conference on the future of the Creative Industries held in Tallinn, October 2011.

In a country with a deficit as bad as it was in 1945 after Britain had endured six years of world war, it is not surprising that innovation is seen as an essential component of helping Britain regain economic stability and achieve growth. Government and its arms-length agencies are investing heavily in innovation, hoping to unleash radical, transformatory creations. The nation’s universities are incentivised to innovate jointly with private and publicly funded businesses. NESTA’s research and development programmes further catalyse the notion of knowledge exchange for innovation. Innovation Lab and Culture Hack activities are increasing, opening up possibilities and encouraging cross-sector collaboration. Discovering the new, radical and transformatory is the focus of funding which is underwriting the risk of the research and development. Developing collaborative relationships that enable nascent products to become economically viable is another purpose of current innovation investment. The innovation-specific investments available for the creative and cultural sector are explicitly for stimulating radical innovations (defined as bleeding-edge nascent products and processes that the world needs – or does not know it yet needs).

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Rudman Consulting is delighted to announce that that Creative Scotland has launched its Cultural Economy Programme. This funding area includes investment in digital development for the cultural sector over the period 2012-2014 to be delivered by AmbITion Scotland, designed and delivered by Rudman Consulting, together with Culture Sparks. These resources will sustain delivery for another comprehensive series of events sharing digital skills, knowledge and resources throughout the sector. The AmbITion Scotland team will be working directly with new partners, NESTA and Culture Hack Scotland building on our considerable experience from the last two years. The Creative Scotland guidelines for the Digital Development strand state:

“We have developed partnerships with NESTA, and Culture Hack Scotland, and will launch an integrated, comprehensive programme of support for digital development early in 2012. This will address the spectrum of needs of organisations at varying stages of development in terms of digital capacity, knowledge, and skills. The programme will:

· Support capacity building around skills, infrastructure, and knowledge in adopting digital technologies

· Address and reflect the further digital technology development needs of organisations with the capacity and interest to innovate and significantly enhance organisational sustainability through further integration of sophisticated digital technology

· Support the further organisational sustainability of those exploring progressive business models, or at a more advanced stage of developing creative content*

*note: support for the development of creative content is available through other Creative Scotland Investment Programmes including the Innovation Fund which will open again in April 2012 (this also sits within the Cultural Economy Programme and aims to ‘invest in distinctive and engaging digital interactive media content’).
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Watch out for more news in the new year!

Following its initiation at Culture Hack Scotland, this case study video maps the development of a hack into a fully operational mobile site launched by Edinburgh International Book Festival this summer.

[Update 10.06.2012 - Five Minute Theatre wins a Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) - category best technological production.] The Stage quotes judge Robert Dawson Scott, theatre critic of The Times:  “For once, it wasn’t the pin point accuracy or the polished slickness of the endeavour that impressed: it was the sheer scale of the ambition which made Five Minute Theatre – 24 hours of uninterrupted, brand new theatre, streamed live from all over Scotland, to the world – such an astonishing technical triumph.”

Five Minute Theatre in an Hour!, is an AmbITion Scotland webinar, that explored the digitisation of live theatre content. Five Minute Theatre was an extraordinary piece of virtual and live theatre – work that I did as an Envirodigital branded project: working as producers together with National Theatre Scotland. Watch the case study as told by project creator Marianne Maxwell, National Theatre Scotland; media partner Robert Dawson Scott, STV and The Times theatre critic; and technical consultant/producer Hannah Rudman, Envirodigital, to find more out about this extraordinary virtual and live production.

In total during Five Minute Theatre, a twitter trend was created (#fiveminutetheatre was the top trend in Glasgow on the day) and there were over 6000 hours of theatre viewed online. To put that into context: NTS’s July touring production, Knives in Hens is 1.5 hour viewer hours. 6000 viewer hours online is therefore equivalent to 4000 people watching  a one and a half hr production (that’s equivalent to  around a sold-out 2 1/2 week run at a venue like The Traverse – a midscale scale venue).

http://www.fiveminutetheatre.com was a virtual live theatre project powered by webcasting and standard Scottish bandwidth! The National Theatre Scotland celebrated their 5th birthday by showing online 24 hours of live 5 minute pieces of theatre, by anyone, for everyone. My other company Envirodigital have been the technical consultants, and producers. To provide an insight and  case study of how we’ve pulled this event together, NTS have built up a video blog over the weeks.

Also in this blog: an update on the digital developments of Sadler’s Wells, Timespan Museum, Arts and Heritage Centre, and Stellar Quines theatre company.

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AmbITion Scotland’s next webinar will be introduced by Hannah Rudman, and webcast by Envirodigital. It’s live on the day at Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB.

Last Thursday I watched an NTLive! almost-live simulcast at my local Cameo Cinema, of Frankenstein, London’s hottest sold out ticket, directed by Danny Boyle (to see it in London, I’d have to queue for a day ticket -from 1am, when the queue starts forming!).

The production was mesmerising, engaging, gripping and yes, it was live theatre on stage, with its sweat, spits, and occasional trips and stammers, recorded for digital distribution. Except, this time, it wasn’t quite live.

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I’m delighted to announce that my other company#fiveminutetheatre! Envirodigital are consultant producers for Five Minute Theatre.

NATIONAL THEATRE OF SCOTLAND MARKS ITS 5TH BIRTHDAY WITH A VIRTUAL 24 HOUR THEATRE PROJECT

Today, 25th February, 2011, the National Theatre of Scotland marks its fifth birthday by opening public submissions for a nationwide virtual theatre project as well as announcing details of a series of public platforms aimed at provoking and facilitating cultural debate.

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@WeDidThisUK ‘s Ed Whiting explains the aspirations and opportunities of the UK’s latest crowd source fundraising website, WeDidThis.

Launch of ‘Wedidthis’ at the MMM Culture Change Conference from Simone Jaeger on Vimeo.